Liam Quinn, Jerome Whitfield, Michael P Alpers, Tracy Campbell, Holger Hummerich, William Pomat, Peter Siba, George Koki, Ida Moltke, John Collinge, Garrett Hellenthal, Simon Mead
Populations of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea (EHPNG, area 11,157 km2 ) lived in relative isolation from the rest of the world until the mid-20th century, and the region contains a wealth of linguistic and cultural diversity. Notably, several populations of EHPNG were devastated by an epidemic prion disease, kuru, which at its peak in the mid-twentieth century led to some villages being almost depleted of adult women. Until now, population genetic analyses to learn about genetic diversity, migration, admixture, and the impact of the kuru epidemic have been restricted to a small number of variants or samples...
March 7, 2024: American Journal of Human Genetics